Almost mid-project update

This week again I have been working on finishing my research so that all that is left to do is email intellects on this subject and complete my artifact. I have taken part in an art trip to Venice and during this trip we visited museums that had artists I was inspired to use in my EPQ, for one we went to a renaissance painting museum which I believed could be used for my research.

The next stage of my work is to start draft emails to intellects, which I have been slowly starting to do throughout the project but I believe that now I have got all this research I know what I want to talk about a little more.

My supervisor has told me that the idea of using craftivism in my project is good and I should look more into this if I am to use it within my artifact. It is good because it often uses the medium of textiles which is what I also wish to use.

A problem that has occurred this week is simply trying to relate the artists I am researching to the question in hand. For example I started looking into the surrealist art of Max Ernst however he didn't seem at all interested in influencing culture like political art for example would, consequently there was a lot less to say about him. I've worked with this problem by making sure that the artists I am looking at have definitely had an impact on society whether they were trying to or not.

WORK OVER HALF TERM

This half term has been spent completing my Frida Kahlo research so that all the artists that I have chosen to research in depth are complete. I actually found researching Firda Kahlo the most interesting due to there being far more information on the artist on the internet and in books than I thought there would be. She seemed to have a life full of ups and downs (mainly downs) and this influenced her work however not only this but the effect it has had on the upblic over years has been quite exceptional and therefore works to argue the idea that art is an effective platfomr for culture change.

A problem that has occurred to me throughout doing my artist research is that it is impossible to find any statistics, facts or figures on how effective art is as a platform of cultural change primarily because it is an opinion. Therefore in order to answer my topic title and overcome this problem I am going to need to use my own attitudes towards the subject gathered from all the research I have done.

The next step in my project is printing out pictures to go with my artist research, doing slightly less in depth research into other activist artists and then planning what I am going to make for my artefact. On top of this I also want to email some art historians and therefore I need to begin drafting those and working out who I wish to contact.

In terms of the less in depth artist research my textiles teacher has suggested looking into the craftivist movement as well as other artists. I first heard about the craftivist movement when I went to a uni openday at Falmouth arts university. Durning the textiles lecture it was brought up as one of the pathways graduates go down, therefore this is not only interesting research for my EPQ however will also give me some insight into what I may want to look at in university.

END OF OCTOBER UPDATE

I've almost finished my artist research, just completing Frida Kahlo and the other artists. Once I've done this my supervisor told me i'd need to start planning what i'm going to do for my artefact. We also had a talk on referencing today and how to use the Harvard reference system, a problem I have encountered with this is that I have already used sources without making references. To get over this problem I will have to use the websites I linked in refme.com and attempt at matching my sources to these websites.

WEBSITE REFERENCES SO FAR NOTES

http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/exhibitions/touring/grayson-perry-the-vanity-of-small-differences
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2003/turner-prize-2003-artists-grayson-perry
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/grayson_perry.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Perry
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/21/grayson-perry-tapestry-portrait-gallery
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/grayson-perry-cross-dressing-happiness-4479815
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/44439/grayson-perrys-a-house-for-essex-unveiled.html
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/23/grayson-perry-who-are-you-recview-it-takes-a-real-artist-to-get-to-the-heart-of-chris-huhne
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/grayson-perry-who-are-you-national-portrait-gallery-review-sublimely-beautiful-9820710.html#gallery

https://coolerlifestyle.com/style/mia-meets-laura-callaghan.html
http://magculture.com/interview-with-laura-callaghan/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/06/barbara-kruger-modern-art-oxford-review
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kruger-barbara.htm
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/barbara-krugers-artwork-speaks-truth-to-power-137717540/

CHANGE OF INITIAL PLAN

I have spoken over my question with my supervisor whilst drafting emails to lecturers and decided that my question gives me too large of a scope to actually come to any conclusion. Therefore I am re-thinking my question to make it not only simpler however far more directed at what I want to research. My new question is;
'What makes art an effective platform for cultural change?'
Also today I am doing more Barbara Kruger research and putting it into my sketchbook.

BARBARA KRUGER AND EMAILS

I have now finished my research on Laura Callaghan and have started focusing on Barbara Kruger. I have also this week made a list of artists and lecturers I would like to get in touch with over the course of my project to get their views on my question. I have got their emails and this week I plan on starting to draft these. Problems that have occurred include trying to find emails or contact details of certain people, I am surprised by how difficult it was to find something for Grayson Perry yet how easy it was for Barbara Kruger.

In addition to this I went to our college library to have a look at past EPQ's as examples. I tried to find art EPQ's in particular however there were very few of these. I learnt how the project would look when finished and the amount of work that gets put into them.

END OF SEPTEMBER UPDATE

This week I have put my Laura Callaghan research onto paper in my sketchbook. By the end of this week I want to have finished her and moved fully onto my next artist which will most probably be Barbara Kruger. I need to look at getting in touch with experts such as art historians and also places I can go to further my research. A problem I have encountered is the difficulty involved in trying to get in touch with experts in this field.